162 do:mestic animals. 



duction of cold air into the abdomen during the operation ; but this 

 derangement has generally ceased within twenty-fonr hours. If the 

 contrary should occur, we administer one or two sudorific draughts; 

 such as wine, warm cider, or half a glass of brandy, in a quart of warm 

 water; treatment which suffices in a short time to re-establish a healthy 

 state of the belly, the animal at the same time being protected by two 

 coverings of wool. 



"The operation which we have been describing, ought to be per- 

 formed as we have said before, thirty to forty days after calving, upon a 

 cow which has had her third or fourth calf, so that we may have a 

 greater abundance of milk. The only precaution to be observed before 

 the operation, is, that on the preceding evening we should not give so 

 copious a meal as usual, and to operate in the morning before the ani- 

 mal, has fed, so that the operator shall not find any obstacle from the 

 primary digestive organs, especially the paunch, which, during its state 

 of ordinary fullness, might prevent operating with facilitv. 



" roilflusioil. — From what has preceded, it is fixed and irrefutable — 

 1. That spaying induces permanency of milk, increase of quantity, and 

 improvement of quality ; richer, more buttery, superior color, finer taste 

 and flavor. 2. The most suitable age is six years, and after the third 

 or fourth calf 3. The spayed cow fattens more easily, and furnishes 

 beef of a better quality. 4. Cows that are bad breeders may be kept as 

 g;ood milkers, and the quality of ^'ood cattle kept up." 



DISEASES A\D RE3IE1)IES.— Tim is perhaps the most unsatisfactory 

 division on which a writer on cattle can pretend to write. There are more 

 cattle destroyed than cured by the strange quackery and drenching pur- 

 sued by their over-officious owners ; and to write any thing to encourage 

 a system so ruinous is to perpetuate the evil. 'J he first thing a dairy- 

 man or grazier does is to get a long list of " receipts" inserted in a book, 

 classified or not, but all under the names of certain diseases. A cow 

 falls ill. She has the yellows, or the staggers, or the worms, not be- 

 cause there are any clear and decided symptoms, but because the owner 

 fancies it is so, and his specific is administered. He watches intently, 

 and no good effect is produced; he runs for another medicine prescribed 

 by another hand ; the one opposing, and perhaps counteracting the 

 other. One neighbor looks in, and perhaps another ; each advises a 

 medicine, as empirical as that of the owner, and all must be given, until 

 the symptoms increase and get so bad that the village quack is sent for, 

 who is more clever than the rest, because he has a larger range of " re- 

 ceipts," and he adds his quota of drugs, until the beast dies, poisoned 

 by medicine ! 



Now, so long as unprofessional men w^ill continue to prescribe and 

 treat obstinate and complicated complaints; and so long as the public 

 press will pander to the receipt-mania, there is no hope of any amend- 

 ment. Certaitily we shall lend no aid to the system. 



But there are some simple and manifest ailments where the farmer 

 may himself administer simple medicines; and there are some cases of 

 emergency, too, when it may be necessary to do something, till scientific 

 aid can be obtained. To these cases we will allude. We will take the 

 complaints in the order of their frequency. 



